Some favorite books I recommend
I thought I’d do a post about some books I’d like to recommend. It’s a mix of new and old, e-books and printed books and several different genres.
E-books (that I’d love to buy in print):
Wattpad books:
* Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter (mystery/fantasy),
* Feyland: The First Adventure, Feyland: The Dark Realm, Feyland: The Bright Court by Anthea Sharp (fantasy)
From other sites, such as Smashwords and Amazon:
* The Backworlds by M Pax (Science fiction)
* The Rune House by L J Hutton (fantasy)
* Housewife with a Halflife by A B Wells (fantasy)
* Cut Crop and Die by Joanna Campbell Slan (scrapbook mystery)
* The Night Also Rises by C B McCullough (SF)
* Fatal Boarding and Deep Crossing by E R Mason (SF)
* Defying Fate by D L Morrese (fantasy/science fiction)
* Bonds of Fire by Sophie Duncan (fantasy slash romance)
* The Glass Wall, Behind the Mirror by Madison Adler/Carmen Caine
Print books:
Mysteries:
* Eliot Pattison’s Tibet mysteries
* Barbara Nadel’s Turkey mysteries
* Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum comic mysteries
* Susan Russo Anderson’s historic mysteries set in Sicily (one of them only available as e-book)
* Jean François Parot’s French historic mysteries (in French and English, maybe other languages)
* Michael Innes’ mysteries
* Denise Mina’s Garnet Hill trilogy
Fantasy:
* Shadowbridge, Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
* the Old Kingdom series about Sabriel by Garth Nix
* The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
* The Blue Girl, Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint
* Kelly McCullough: science/tech/fantasy series starting with Webmage
* Eccentric Circles by Rebecca Lickiss
* The Invisible Ring by Anne Bishop
* Diana Wynne Jones’ books (all of them)
* Ursula K LeGuin’s Earthsea series
* Frances Hardinge’s books, especially The Lost Conspiracy (Gullstruck Island) and Well Witched (Verdigris Deep)
YA:
* Tattoo the Awakening by Toni Leland
Historic romances
* Penelope by Anya Wylde (comedy)
* Kitty by Catherine Chapman
* The Only Gold by Tamara Allen (slash)
Science Fiction:
* Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, Hespira by Matthew Hughes (sort of science fiction/fantasy)
* To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (time travel story)
* The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin
This is really a post about books, but I can’t resist adding some of my current favorite tv series:
Endevour, Grantchester – historic cop series
Shetland, Fortitude – cop series in rather unusual settings
Feyland: The Bright Court
First I’ll just mention the prequel, Feyland: The First Adventure. I hadn’t seen it before I read Feyland: The Dark Realm, which is really the first book in the trilogy, and only just discovered it when I was looking for the sequel. So I read the prequel first. I must say it didn’t really contribute much to the storyline. What happened in that short story, wasn’t really new, just a bit more fleshed out than in the sort of flashback, or intro, so in a way, I might as well just have skipped it entirely. Then again, since I wanted more from the Feyland Trilogy, it was fun to get just that. Maybe it would have been better to just add the intro to The Dark Realm, but I’m not complaining.
The Bright Court begins more or less right after The Dark Realm ended. It feels a lot like the second part of the same book. I don’t really have much to add to my first review of this trilogy, but just for the record: I loved this book as much as the first.
This time, you get to see more of Tam Lin’s old friend Marny, who in my opinion is a very cool, rather underused character. Maybe it would be unfair to say that she’s a more interesting character than Jennet, but there, I’ve said it. On the other hand, Jennet has matured a lot from the prequel to the second book.
The situation at the end of the first book is pretty much unchanged when The Bright Court begins. The same threats exist, except at the moment, Marny is the one in most danger. Why that is, you’ll have to read the book to find out. Even when she’s in danger, she’s a pretty resourceful person, so she’s not totally helpless, but at the moment, she needs a bit of help and her friends are ready to risk entering Feyland again to give her that help.
It’s a very good book. If you love fantasy, Faerie and computer games you should read it. I only wish Book 3 would be available for free. On the one hand, I’m prepared to buy the whole series in print, but on the other, I’d prefer to know what I’m buying. Someone told me there’s a second trilogy by the same author, set in the same ‘universe’. If it’s as good as this trilogy, I’d love to read it too.
Josephine Tey’s mysteries
After reading Josephine Tey’s mysteries, I thought I’d post some of my thoughts about them.
First the positives:
They’re free.
They’re very well written in general.
They’re really good mysteries.
The minor characters are mostly nice and interesting.
To me, they’re historic, though I know the author wrote and published them in her ‘present’.
What I had a bit of trouble with:
In my opinion, the ‘sleuth’ Alan Grant, is a tiresome, annoying condescending pretentious snob. He’s terrfied of falling for some woman and ending up getting married.
In fact, most of the characters seem to be a bit bisexual, or maybe it’s just my fan fiction/slash-tainted mind that sees them that way, but that wasn’t meant to be a negative, it’s just connected to Grant’s fear of falling in love (and being lost to crime-solving). Actually, it feels quite modern.
I won’t go into any more about the negatives, because they’re very few and I did like the books. It’s obvious that they’re of far higher quality than most internet freebies.
Some of the books are standalones, others are part of a series about Alan Grant, apparently one of Scotland Yard’s finest (and he’d be the first to agree with that). As far as mystery solving talents go, I agree too. He is brilliant.
In one of the books, The Daughter of Time, Grant’s hospitalized and going stir crazy with boredom. With a little help from his best buddy (faghag?) actress Marta Hallam, he finds a historic mystery to solve. (“Did Richard III kill his little nephews?”). It’s probably the best of the books (or maybe The Singing Sands is or – actually I’m not sure – most of them are really good). The title isn’t explained in the book, so obviously Josephine Tey expected her readers to be as edcuated as she was. Is the meaning clear to most people? I didn’t know what it was referring to, until after quite a bit of research, I ended up finding the explanation in a review on Goodreads. The Daughter of Time, apparently, is Truth, rather than Duty. I’m sure that makes sense as far as history is concerned but I’m not sure if it helps with murder cases. Not in real life. Agatha Christie makes the same claim in The Mysterious Mr Quin (that murder cases can become easier to solve after some time has passed), and it certainly works in her book.
One of the books had a rather unusual (for the time) twist at the end, but I won’t go into that because I don’t want to spoil it for any future readers).
I must say Miss Pym Disposes is probably the one I like the least. It’s about a former teacher, turned best-selling author (a bit like Josephine Tey herself, apparently) who is invited to a girls’ school by an old friend from her own school days. She ends up staying much longer than she’d intended and finds herself fascinated by the students. This book is as well written as the others, but ultimately it ends up being about Miss Pym thinking she can make a life-or-death decision that affects many people and failing because she didn’t have all the facts and that pretty much ruins it at the end.
More than one of these books have been turned into movies and tv series. In fact, I seem to have seen at least one movie and one tv series, not knowing they were based on Josephine Tey’s books. I hardly remembered the movie (Young and Innocent) so that story wasn’t spoiled for me, but I turned out to remember more about the tv series (The Franchise Affair), so that book was pretty much spoiled for me, in the sense that I knew where it was heading right from the start. Strangely enough, that didn’t ruin the story for me, since it was fascinating to follow it anyway.
Feyland: The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp
I just finished reading another fascinating and well written book on Wattpad, Feyland: The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp. It’s a modern (actually futuristic) take on the Tam Lin legend and the one about Thomas the Rhymer. In this story, the maiden is a girl playing a very advanced 3D computer game. She discovers to her cost that her game has a connection with Faerie. To return to Feyland, to regain what she’s lost, she needs a champion and finds it in the form of a boy at her new school. He gladly accepts her plea for help, because he’s impressed with the pretty girl and because he loves playing computer games. His personal life is complicated and at first this offer seems very attractive. After a while, he realizes the seriousness of his undertaking but accepts it anyway.
I found both characters quite easy to relate to and like, and the same goes for the boy’s other friend, a girl I don’t think is based on any character from one of the legends. In fact, all characters seem interesting, although the villain is naturally neither pleasant nor likeable. If I have any complaint about this book, it’s mainly that it could have been longer and even more developped, but that’s a minor complaint. I’m just greedy. 🙂
The author sketches a realistic and depressing dystopia (the real world setting). I imagine it’s supposed to be a relatively near future (twenty-thirty years ahead maybe, though that’s just a guess).
This mix between fantasy and a future setting with advanced technology is something I really enjoy. Somehow they go well together.
Fortunately, there’s a prequel and a second book in what looks to be a trilogy about Feyland. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series. If you like fantasy and technology you’ll probably enjoy it too. The books are available for purchase in several online bookstores, for instance Amazon and Smashwords, as well as for free on Wattpad.
The Rune House by L J Hutton
I recently read The Rune House by L J Hutton. The book starts in 1574
when a strange house in the shape of a rune is built somewhere near the border between England and Wales. Strange and tragic events begin to occur near the house. In the present day two police officers begin to investigate an old case from one of the officers’ past. It leads them to the strange house where they begin to unravel the mystery connected to the building.
The book is quite well written (but as usual, these e-books would benefit from more proofreading.) Sometimes the plot gets a little too gruesome for my taste, but I see the necessity for it. I love this type of mysterious story. Another thing I’m rather fond of is sympathetic characters and a happy ending, both of which I get in this book. If you like fantasy, with a rather dark twist, then this might be a book for you.
It’s available on, among other places, Amazon.com, (Amazon.co.uk for those who live in the UK) and Smashwords.
Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter
A few weeks ago, I finished YA mystery, Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter. I read it on Wattpad, but it’s also available on Amazon. Compared to the other books on Wattpad, it was a pleasant surprise. Some of the books on Wattpad are quite entertaining, but most of them are works in progress, subject to editing and revising and – hopefully improving. This book was more finished than that, more polished. It was also really good. Not just exciting, fascinating but also very well written. I give it four out of five stars.
The story is about fourteen-year-old Leilani “Lani”, who lives in Kaua’i (one of the Hawaiian islands). She lives with her ‘grandmother’ Tutu, ‘aunt’ Rita, who is an anti-GMO organic farmer, her 13-year-old foster brother, Pano, and four ‘cousins’ who are two sets of fraternal twins, Fred and Frank, 11 and Franny and Faye, 15.
Apart from wondering about her parents, who left her as a baby with Tutu and her family, Lani’s worst concerns is starting high school. That is until she finds a secret field with some strange unknown fruits and begins to have visions about the island’s ancient gods and legends.
The descriptions about Hawaiian mythology is one reason I found this book so fascinating. I knew practically nothing about this pantheon and the beliefs connected to it.
I also enjoyed reading the story from Lani’s perspective. We may not have that much in common, but Lani’s an interesting main character. It’s easy to relate to at least part of her situation. After all, I’ve been a teenage girl too. The other characters are nice too, especially Tutu and aunt Rita, though I really hate the fact that Pano sometimes hunts and kills animals. That’s one thing I do have in common with Lani.
The twin girls, Franny and Faye, use a sort of private language ‘twin speak’ that Lani has begun to understand and eventually, she lets the twins know that she does.
It’s been difficult for Lani and Pano to get along with the Fabulous Four, as the two sets of twins refer to themselves (the Frightening Four, according to Lani), but during the course of this story, eventually the kids come to understand each other better.
The Backworlds by M Pax
I just finished The Backworlds by M Pax. Since I read books mainly to escape from my boring reality, I love books that provide such an escape. This one does. I also love characters that are likeable and – you guessed it – these are.
The setting is far into the future when many planets have been colonized – some are less hospitable than others (the ‘backworlds’) as opposed to the supposedly more habitable Foreworlds. You find out that there’s been a war between the foreworlders and the backworlders, but that’s pretty much all you learn about the Foreworlders.
The main character is what seems to be a teenage boy/young man, who has been working for several years in his father’s bar. He belongs to an interesting bioengineered species that isn’t completely human, with ‘living hair’ and some sort of short fur that is pleasant to the touch.
Since life is harsh in the ‘backworlds’, Craze’s father, ungratefully, decides to make his son leave, after taking the younger man’s girlfriend from him. To make sure Craze really leaves, he sets the leaders of their small community on him, with something like cattle prods. Craze is forced to board a ship heading for a space junction, where he will be able to choose his own destination.
Fortunately, Craze meets some very nice avian guys with a ship of their own, who decide to hire him as part of their crew.
People (I use the term loosely) in this ‘universe’ seem to be a bit dishonest but not ruthless enough to kill others, at least not most of them. To me that’s very important. I can’t stress enough how tired I am of ruthless, cruel, cold characters. To me it’s necessary to be able to sympathize with the characters to be able to finish the book (and look forward to reading another by the same author).
I give this book four out of five stars (it’s a relatively short, simple plot), for the fascinating setting, the fascinating characters and excellent writing.
Soulwoven by Jeff Seymour
I recently read the fantasy novel Soulwoven by Jeff Seymour on Wattpad. It’s also available for Kindle and as a paperback from Amazon.
It was a fascinating, well written story, with a magic that I found interesting and different. The main characters were likeable and that’s very important to me. I’d love to read more by the same author. My one complaint is that I felt that there wasn’t complete closure at the end. The story left me with more questions than answers, but I understand there’s a sequel coming, that will probably take care of that problem.
The Only Gold by Tamara Allen
The Only Gold by Tamara Allen was a Kindle freebie that I downloaded last year (I think). It’s not free anymore, but it’s still only 3.74 (US dollars). I have so many books on my TBR list that I had forgotten what sort of book this was. The way it looks once I’ve started reading it, I can’t find the title or the author’s name. It took me a rather long while to figure out what this book was about. In other words, there was a bit of a slow start, but once I got into the book, I found it interesting and well written.
It’s the late 19th century. Jonah Woolner works at a bank in New York. He is content with his life until he’s passed over for a long-awaited promotion. Reid Hylliard shows up out of the blue and annoys Jonah with his charm. Eventually, Reid begins to win him over (as he’s done with everyone else at the bank). Then trouble strikes the bank and Jonah’s relationship with Reid is put under severe strain. Both their lives (and those of others) are threatened, not only the bank.
The fact that it is a slash story and a historic one as well, was a big plus for me. I don’t normally read pure romances – but in combination with historic and/or fantasy it usually works for me.
There’s quite a bit of action (and I mean action, not sex) in this story, but also, to be honest, gay sex, so if you don’t like that, don’t read. Otherwise, I can really recommend this book.
Booklikes, Libib, Leafmarks and more…
Booklikes
I was doing a little squeeing about LIbib a while back. I might as well have squeed (?) a bit about Booklikes as well, because that’s such a wonderful book community too. Everyone on my friend list probably knows about how I came to be looking for alternatives to Amazon-owned Goodreads (and likewise Amazon-owned Shelfari, and LibraryThing which isn’t owned by Amazon, as far as I know). I found several book communities but only these two feel like they’re really worth it.
Leafmarks
Actually, I’m also getting more and more fond of Leafmarks too, but it’s basically an ordinary book community, only a bit nicer than most.
Booklikes
Booklikes includes, apart from the usual, a Tumblr-like blog. At the time I signed up for Booklikes I was still on Tumblr (and on Livejournal) but shortly afterwards I was forced to leave. It was sad, because I’d been there for so many years, but I won’t compromise with my conscience so there was no question about leaving, I just had to do it.
So now at least I have my Booklikes blog (and of course Dreamwidth and WordPress, but people on my friends list must know that by now). Only a few days ago, there was a bit of uproar on the Booklikes site, because the people running the site had had to start putting ads on it. Most people were upset and were asking about adblocker (?) settings. I was just worried about the blog. After all, I can stand ads on the dashboard, but not on my own personal blog. Fortunately, I was reassured by one of the nice people who work there. They consider our blogs our personal area, and won’t use that for advertising. Naturally, they would have been well within their rights if they had, but I’m so very pleased they’ve promised they won’t put anything as ugly as an ad there.
Another thing that is nice about Booklikes is that you feel so close to the admins. If you have a problem or a suggestion, you can either chat with them, or send an offline message to them and they’ll reply to you very soon.
Libib
Libib is a bit different. You can write short comments on your books and post short messages, but my Libib account doesn’t include a blog. I don’t need another one anyway. The other day I sent in my suggestions for improvement on Libib (not that the site isn’t really great already). To my surprise only the day after, I received a polite and friendly email from one of the people behind Libib. The guy said that most of my suggestions were already on their way and that the only one that isn’t, is still being decided on and if it is approved, it will happen next year. I really hadn’t expected such a prompt reply, and it certainly doesn’t make me love Libib any less.
I must admit I love seeing my bookshelves on both sites. On my BL blog, there’s also a little shelf with my latest additions. It’s childish, I know, but I think it’s really cool.
Wattpad is another new acquaintance. Apparently, that’s where everything writing-related is happening these days. You can post both original fiction and fan fiction and you can also read lots of free books. Most people tend to publish novel-length stories, in chapters, but you can also publish shorter work. One thing that’s been stressing me out is that you need a cover for your books. Even the short stories and fan fics. It’s also a very nice feature. My stories look great with their new covers. I have decided to only post work I haven’t published anywhere else, except on my websites, so I have never needed covers for them before. So far I haven’t had any reviews or votes, but it’s fun just to know that my stories are on this site, which is visited by so many people.
It reminds me of AO3, where at least I’m getting kudos regularly, if not actual reviews.
One big advantage of all these sites except for Leafmarks (and even that, to some extent) is that you can add books in other languages than English, and post stories in other languages than English, if you should want to.
